Madam Speaker, I am pleased to have the opportunity this afternoon to address a matter of critical importance to the health and future of our democracy: the dangers posed by corruption. A democratic government is founded on the principles of accountability, transparency and trust. When these principles are eroded by corruption, the very fabric of democracy is eroded as well, and public confidence in institutions is undermined.
History offers numerous examples of how corruption has tested long-standing democracies and the strength of democratic institutions. History has a lot to teach us about this very real problem. As the saying goes, those who do not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.
One of the most iconic symbols of corruption in modern-day governance has to be the administration of former U.S. president Richard Nixon and his infamous Watergate scandal. The Watergate scandal consisted of Richard Nixon's staff hiring burglars to break into the Democratic Party's headquarters to plant listening devices in their phones. When the burglars got caught, Nixon's re-election campaign paid them to stay quiet. Eventually, a Senate committee was established to investigate the matter.
When the Senate committee requested that Nixon hand over audio tapes of his White House meetings, Nixon initially refused. He then ordered his attorney general to fire the special prosecutor who was requesting the tapes. Only after a Supreme Court ruling did Nixon eventually relent and hand over all of the tapes unedited and unredacted. Shortly after, former president Nixon resigned in disgrace.
While it is good that, in this instance, the corruption was stopped and the bad actor resigned, the effects were long-lasting in democracies all around the globe, including Canada. Ever since, people have become very cynical and distrustful of politicians and assume those in power prioritize personal or partisan gain over the public interest. People assume politicians routinely engage in bribery, embezzlement and influence peddling.
These actions, whether they are real or merely perceived, erode public trust, distort policy-making and diminish the legitimacy of government. In democratic systems, citizens must entrust their elected representatives with the authority to make decisions on their behalf. When this trust is violated, the repercussions are severe: voter apathy increases, polarization deepens and public cynicism grows.
Canada, like any democracy, has experienced its share of corruption scandals. While no political party and no government is immune to such scandals, the current Liberal government has taken these scandals to another level. The SNC-Lavalin affair brought renewed scrutiny to the Liberal Party under the Prime Minister.
This controversy involved allegations that senior officials in the Prime Minister's office attempted to interfere with the judicial process to secure a deferred prosecution agreement for SNC-Lavalin, a major engineering firm facing criminal charges. When former attorney general Jody Wilson-Raybould refused to go along with the deferred prosecution agreement, the Prime Minister removed her from the position of attorney general in a move reminiscent of when Richard Nixon ordered his attorney general to fire the special prosecutor who was requesting the White House tapes.
Fortunately, Jody Wilson-Raybould blew the whistle and went public with allegations that she had faced undue pressure to intervene in the SNC-Lavalin case. While the Prime Minister denied any wrongdoing, the Ethics Commissioner ultimately found his actions violated ethics rules. The affair raised serious questions about the independence of Canada's judiciary, the accountability of elected officials and the influence of corporate interests on public policy. Unfortunately, the Prime Minister chose to violate the fundamental democratic principles of accountability, transparency and trust, instead of simply coming clean with Canadians.
Another recent example is the WE Charity scandal, in which the Liberal government awarded a sole-source contract worth $900 million to the WE Charity to administer a completely unnecessary grant program for students who did volunteer work. It later emerged that the Prime Minister and the then finance minister, Bill Morneau, had personal ties to the charity, raising concerns about conflicts of interest.
Both the Prime Minister and Bill Morneau faced investigations by the Ethics Commissioner, further damaging public trust. The scandal highlighted the dangers of conflicts of interest in government decision-making, the importance of rigorous ethical standards and the need for transparency in awarding public contracts. Without these safeguards in place, the trust Canadians place in their democratic institutions is further damaged.
The ArriveCAN app is another one of the Liberal government's recent scandals, complete with money disappearing in amounts that far exceed what Richard Nixon paid to the Watergate burglars. The incident showed how covering up criminal activity and a lack of transparency in government operations can erode public trust. While the ArriveCAN app was initially developed as a tool to facilitate efficient border crossings, its rollout and associated costs raised serious concerns about government accountability and oversight, and about the effective use of taxpayers' money.
According to the Auditor General, the ArriveCAN app cost over $54 million, while other vendors estimated they could have done the work for about $200,000. When a relatively straightforward $200,000 app balloons in cost to over $54 million, it cannot be due to simple incompetence or mismanagement. The only explanation is criminal activity. The government should have called in the auditors immediately and should have called the police, but only after months of audits, committee meetings and investigations was the truth finally brought to light.
The principles of accountability, transparency and trust have also been eroded by the most recent scandal, what I will call the “other Randy” scandal. The member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre owned and operated a medical supply company that bid on government contracts while he was a cabinet minister. The member's business partner in the two-person business informed a client he was providing updates to someone known as Randy. Then he said that he meant another Randy.
To date, despite having been asked repeatedly in question period, the member for Edmonton Centre has never identified who the other Randy may be. Everyone knows that the member was violating ethics rules and was in a conflict of interest, but even this was not enough to warrant his dismissal from cabinet. It was only after it was discovered that the member's company was self-identifying as wholly indigenous-owned while bidding on government contracts that the member for Edmonton Centre was removed from cabinet.
Just like Richard Nixon, the member for Edmonton Centre was desperate to cling to power regardless of the harm he was causing to the public trust and to the reputation of our democratic institutions. Once again, the principles of accountability, transparency and trust were all broken under the Liberal government.
The actions of the Liberal government over the last nine years have led to an erosion of public trust in our democratic institutions. More and more citizens perceive that their government prioritizes partisan or personal gain over the public good. The government's actions have led to a weakening of democratic institutions. Corruption undermines the independence and integrity of democratic institutions, such as the judiciary and the public service. The SNC-Lavalin affair in particular raised concerns about political interference in the judicial process, the absence of which is a cornerstone of democratic governance.
The government's actions have led to an increase in voter apathy. Scandals contribute to voter disengagement by fostering a sense of futility and disillusionment. People see a few crooked politicians on the news and assume that they are just the tip of the iceberg and that all politicians must be corrupt. This is particularly dangerous in a democracy, in which active participation is essential to hold leaders accountable.
Robust mechanisms need to be in place to ensure transparency and accountability in government. Independent bodies, such as the offices of the Auditor General and the Ethics Commissioner, play a critical role in identifying and addressing corruption. However, when these institutions discover problems and ring alarm bells, the government cannot simply sweep the matter under the carpet or let reports sit on a shelf to collect dust. The rules must be followed, and wrongdoers must be held to account. This brings us to the Liberals' most recent scandal and the subject of this afternoon's debate: the documents pertaining to the Sustainable Development Technology Canada Fund that the Liberals refuse to hand over.
Earlier this year, the Auditor General released a scathing report on Sustainable Development Technology Canada, or SDTC, and its mismanagement of public funds. Here are some of her findings: There was $334 million handed out to projects in which board members held a conflict of interest, with over 186 cases. A staggering $58 million was handed out to ineligible projects. What were these projects? Some of them did not develop a single new technology; others made outlandish claims about their environmental benefits that could not stand up to the slightest scrutiny. However, they were funded.
Let us not forget that the Auditor General looked at only a sample of SDTC transactions. She looked at roughly half of the transactions and found that 82% of them were conflicted. We can easily surmise that the remaining cases were just as conflicted and that the sums of money involved were hundreds of millions of dollars more.
In December 2023, a whistle-blower testified before the House of Commons Committee. In one particularly stark statement, the whistle-blower said, “Just as I was always confident that the Auditor General would confirm the financial mismanagement at SDTC, I remain equally confident that the RCMP will substantiate the criminal activities that occurred within the organization.”
Enough is enough. In the same way as Richard Nixon finally relented and handed over the tapes related to the Watergate scandal, it is time for the Liberals to relent. It is time for the unredacted documents related to the SDTC scandal to be handed over to the RCMP so that it can do its job and get to the bottom of this.
Democracy is fragile and vulnerable, and it is a system of government that requires constant vigilance to preserve. Corruption, whether it occurs in Canada or elsewhere, poses a grave threat to the principles of accountability, transparency and trust that underpin our democratic institutions. As members of Parliament and as citizens of a democratic country, we must demand accountability from our leaders, which is exactly what we are doing here today. Let us learn from history and ensure that Canada's democracy remains resilient and true to its founding principles. It is time for the Liberals to hand over the documents.
